Discussion

Psychoanalysis is a challenging and difficult job, and the psychoanalyst, whatever he believes he is doing, is always trying to grapple with those challenges. He uses anything available to help, including scientific theories from neurobiology, cognitive psychology, or personality development, but those theories as science offer little more assistance than he gets from common sense. What they may offer is a symbol or mantra that assists in maintaining an optimal “analytic” stance or position toward the patient and the analytic process.

New concepts of “emotional memory” are flexible enough to be assimilated by any of the current approaches to psychoanalysis.